Bacon, Koons and Freud

No, That’s Not a Law Firm.

Those are the Names that Carried the Christie’s Sale.

Christie’s Contemporary sale totals $171 million. Half of that figure came from four paintings by Bacon, Freud and Koons and $25 million Koons sculpture. The top ten lots account for 70% of the total sale value. Beneath the headlines, the big news was the record set for a Gilbert and George work: $3.7 million for To Her Majesty. Eight other record prices were set. One for a Jeff Koons painting and more significantly, $2.5 million for a Sayed Haider Raza picture as well as records for Yan-Pei Ming, Nicolas de Stael, Michael Andrews and Antonio Lopez.

By lot, the buying was 48% American, 42% European (including UK), 8% Asian and 2% from other regions.